Few things in life are certain, but one thing that is certain is that our lives change. When the 2025-2026 school year starts on Aug. 7, it will be the first time since 1988 that school will start without me.
For the last several years, I have often said I knew I was exactly where God intended me to be, but it was in spite of myself. I never had a grand plan. It was always God’s plan, and He led me every step of the way.
My first B.S. degree from the University of Alabama was in fashion retail with a minor in marketing. After graduating in 1983, I went to work for Parisian. One day out of the blue, it hit me what I really wanted to do was to be a teacher!
So, I went back to the U of A and got a degree in family and consumer science education. With my previous degree, it was the quickest way I could get a degree in education. This was before there were “5th year programs” that gave people a fast track into education. I went back to school for two years and graduated with another B.S. degree.
After working at the North Alabama Skills Center for a year and a half, I finally started teaching at Winston County High School in the fall of 1988. During my second year of teaching, I began working on a master’s degree in school counseling. The state had realized the need for having school counselors in elementary schools. After only two years at Winston County High School, I was hired by the Marion County Board of Education to be the first elementary school counselor in the system.
In August of 1990, I stepped into the unknown world of elementary school. There is no comparison between elementary and high school! The first few weeks I wondered what in the world I was thinking when I decided to make this change. However, I quickly adjusted and fell in love with elementary school students.
I spent eight years at Hamilton Elementary School and absolutely loved my role as the school counselor. My morning duty was to watch the students as they unloaded the buses. That was a very special assignment because I knew for many of those children, I had the opportunity to be the first person that day who smiled and let them know how happy I was to see them.
It still warms my heart when an adult tells me they still have the honor roll certificates I made them. Each grading period (at that time six weeks), I wrote each child’s name on a handmade certificate if they had made the A or A/B Honor Roll. At that time, HES had 725 students, so there were a lot of certificates to be made!
There were times when a child would tell me something that had happened to them that broke my heart. Other times, I got to share in the joyful and happy times of the life of a child. It was very rewarding.
I tried to build relationships so the students knew they could trust me. Each year, my goal was to know at least the first name of all 725 students. I went to each classroom one time each month and did large group guidance activities. I had lots of fun taking my puppets to each class and talking about things like saying no to drugs, how we treat people, character topics and preparing to work one day.
I loved that job, but in 1998, Mr. (Bravell) Jackson needed me to come to the central office and be the counselor for the Alternative School.
I wondered what God was doing! Why would he want me to leave 725 children I had the opportunity to influence for good every day? Mr. Jackson explained to me I would have the chance to influence 3,700 children by moving to the central office. It just would not be as hands on as my job at HES. I really did not think anybody else would love telling the story about Buddy the Junkyard Dog to the fourth graders as much as I did! The story about the dog turned hero helped children understand the importance of treating others with respect no matter where they came from.
The Alternative School was also a wonderful experience. I never had any discipline problems because Mr. (Daryl) Weatherly ran a tight ship! Along with being the counselor, I also took on other responsibilities soon after I made the move because that fall was when our friend and colleague, Jimmy Wallace, passed.
Ms. (Eva Carol) Sartain became the special education coordinator, and I started working with attendance, Safe and Drug-Free Schools and At-Risk activities. By the end of that year, I realized I needed to go back to school once again and get a degree in educational leadership. Although I had stated, with confidence, after the degree in counseling I was FINISHED with school! We really never know what life will bring when we let God lead us into His plan.
During my years at the central office, I served as the counselor for the Alternative School, supervisor over attendance, Safe and Drug-Free Schools programs, the At-Risk program, federal programs, career tech, reading coaches, counselors, ESL, professional development and the program for children who qualify for homeless services.
Along with juggling several of these responsibilities at the same time, I was also the assistant superintendent for nine years. Little did I know, all of these tasks were preparing me to become the superintendent one day!
In May of 2018, Dr. (Eric) Mackey was named as the state superintendent of education leaving his position as the executive director of the School Superintendents of Alabama. This move led to Ryan Hollingsworth leaving Marion County Schools in June to fill the position left by Dr. Mackey.
The board of education hired me to fill out the two and a half years on his term, and then I ran for the position and was elected to serve a four year term that began in January, 2021.
The recurring advice I got from other superintendents was to surround myself with good people. That proved to be the most important advice, and I certainly enjoyed a great team of co-workers who loved Marion County Schools!
It was an honor to have the opportunity to serve as the superintendent of Marion County Schools for six and a half years. Throughout my career in education, my greatest desire was to make decisions that would help children.
During my time as superintendent, every day on my way to work, I would pray James chapter 1 verse 5……asking God to give me enough wisdom for that day to make good decisions for children. That is not always what makes the adults happy, but I knew my job was to always put our students first and help them get a good education. For so many of our students, education is their ticket to having a better life.
There are many stressful days in the life of a superintendent! Weather days were always stressful because you are trying to make decisions based on a forecast. Only God knows what will actually happen with the weather. Every time I sent out a call, it simultaneously went to approximately 7,000 people. Some people thought it was a good decision, others thought it was a really bad decision. That is just the nature of the job. You always want to err on the side of the safety of the students and the bus drivers.
I think anybody who was a superintendent during COVID would tell you that was an extremely stressful experience. In hindsight, I think we did the best we could. I certainly appreciated our board members as we navigated through this time.
We were all in agreement that children needed to be in school. We started back to school in August of 2020, while some systems in Alabama did not go back to school until April, 2021. There were systems in other states that did not open the doors of their schools at all during the 2020-2021 school year. I know missing the last nine weeks of school during the spring of 2020 created a great learning loss gap for our students. I cannot imagine how much damage was done to student learning in systems that did not return until much later.
I always heard when you are ready to retire you will “know it.” After 38 years in public education, I knew it was time. Now I enjoy going to exercise class and having more time to focus on things I want to do around the house. This summer, I enjoyed going on the first vacation I had been on since 2019. I am still in the Kiwanis Club, serve on the industrial development board, and on the board of directors of both the state and national federal programs associations. Staying busy is good for me, but I love getting to do that on my own time schedule!
See complete story in the Journal Record.
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